/**
 * $RCSfile$
 * $Revision$
 * $Date$
 *
 * Copyright 2003-2007 Jive Software.
 *
 * All rights reserved. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.jivesoftware.smack;

import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.Packet;

/**
 * Provides a mechanism to listen for packets that pass a specified filter. This
 * allows event-style programming -- every time a new packet is found, the
 * {@link #processPacket(Packet)} method will be called. This is the opposite
 * approach to the functionality provided by a {@link PacketCollector} which
 * lets you block while waiting for results.
 * 
 * @see Connection#addPacketListener(PacketListener,
 *      org.jivesoftware.smack.filter.PacketFilter)
 * @author Matt Tucker
 */
public interface PacketListener {

	/**
	 * Process the next packet sent to this packet listener.
	 * <p>
	 * 
	 * A single thread is responsible for invoking all listeners, so it's very
	 * important that implementations of this method not block for any extended
	 * period of time.
	 * 
	 * @param packet
	 *            the packet to process.
	 */
	public void processPacket(Packet packet);

}
